The latest on Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos and Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Luke Schenn in your NHL rumor mill.
Steven Stamkos shoots down trade rumors linking him to Buffalo and Calgary.
TAMPA BAY TIMES: Joe Smith reports Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos denied recent rumors claiming the Bolts had trades in place involving him with the Buffalo Sabres and Calgary Flames but Stamkos refused to waive his no-move clause. Smith believes this type of silly speculation will continue until Stamkos either re-signs with the Lightning or moves on via free agency.
The Lightning and the Stamkos camp have declined to publicly discuss the state of negotiations. Stamkos said the two sides will continue working on a deal when the time is right and there’s no deadline for cutting off talks. “I’ve definitely loved every second I’ve been here, and I want to be here and win with this team,” said the Bolts captain. Meanwhile, team owner Jeff Vinik remains confident a deal can be reached to keep Stamkos in Tampa Bay.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: I won’t be surprised if Stamkos is linked to every NHL team in trade rumors before the season ends if he’s still unsigned by then. Of course, the bulk of the speculation will have him heading to the Toronto Maple Leafs. It’s just something we’ll all have to get used to over the course of the season.
CSNPHILLY.COM: Tim Panaccio reports the Philadelphia Flyers still have a roster cut to make. “Given that Luke Schenn was among the “extra” players once again in practice and that Brandon Manning is now paired with Michael Del Zotto and that is not changing, Hakstol said, then it’s now looking as though Schenn will be exposed to waivers,” writes Panaccio.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Rumor has it the Flyers are shopping Schenn, but his $3.6 million cap hit for this season could be a deal breaker. It’s unlikely he’ll be claimed off waivers, but such a move could signal other clubs in need of a defenseman that Schenn is available via trade. If the Flyers demote him, they’ll only get $950K of cap relief.
Stamkos has it pretty sweet in Tampa, great team in place, first class management, great climate, relative anonymity…I can see all of this as just posturing. He’ll resign at the 11th hour IMO.
But if he does get traded, TB will have to accept they won’t get full value. No where near it.
Tampa will resign him but it will have impact on team structure and competitiveness going forward. Tampas best chance is to win this year. Winning the cup will soon be much harder once their stars are on their next contracts since the supporting cast won’t be as strong. Maybe Vasilievski can be the great equalizer and still bring them continuous success after Ben Bishop?
I agree with both of you.
Yzerman stated signing stamkos is his #1 priority and at this time, I assume it will be be before Christmas or at the last minute.
TB is a great example of how just adding a solid goalie can put you over the hump. Yes they will have cap issues to consider with secondary positions, but Bishop is what counts for continued playoff success. Perhaps moreso than stamkos.
Once Bishop goes; Tampa goes.
Unless, as you mentioned, Vasileski can replace him.
I hope Tampa can perform this year. They’re a nice team to watch. If only Drouin could perform on his last Entry Level year, it could mean a lot to the overall teams’ success since teams are so close.
Something must give after signings this year and the next. This year Stamkos, Kucherov, Killorn is up. Next year its Johnson, Palat, Hedman, Bishop. With 90% probability Bishop is gone, since they already have Vasilievski. I’d say one of the triplets gets axed also. Going forward they must get value from Drouin + insert new quality rookies on Entry Level contracts. If Vasilievski plays comparatively to Holtby, Rask and so on, Tampa could be a threat for many years. If not, they could be San Jose for the next 10 years.
If it were Buffalo as the rumor suggests then I might disagree with you on not getting full compensation as we have seen when GMTM wants a player(s) he is willing to go beyond to get him.
I think stamkos is gone. If Tampa wanted to keep him and he wanted to stay what could the hold up B? He will obviously get eight years, and the money will be the same as the two in Chicago at least. There doesn’t seem like there should be a much negotiation to be done.
Why would he take a penny less than Kane or Toews 10.5 mill? He wont get it in Tampa Bay or they would have already done it…Stamkos will be dealt and he has a full no move clause so my guess is he plays the year out..bad scene for the lightning…but yes he is Leaf bound and truthfully they dont have to give a thing to get him considering that no one else will deal for him knowing they cant sign him
Stamkos is not going to Buffalo. Sabres will enough problems signing guys int he coming years without having Stammy’s $10M annual salary getting in the way. The cost would be too great, Buffalo already has that dumb O’Reilly contract to deal with in the coming seasons. Great player, no doubt but I a still concerned with his disappearances during last year’s playoff run.
Hanson, some of the guys that are coming up in the near future as you point out would probably be part of the trade, that being Girgensons, Ennis and Reinhart etc not saying all of them but I can see two of the three I mentioned. IMO in the end Stamkos resigns with TB.
Nowadays cap structure is everything.
Teams can easily screw themselves eg Philly n Boston.
Rare that stars become UFA’s n also a GM up against it trading them.
There is the superstar contract n the ELC contract that form the best teams with the middle being the key to iverall success.
Overspend or too long of a term n its a deep hole.
Therefore Stamkos resigns n retires in TB IMO.
this is the best thing about the new nhl:
1. Forced to rebuild & draft to have best success
2. Take 10 years to rebuild, draft, develop and implement a team to be successful and see the results.
3. Right when you begin to reap benefits from 1-2 above and you are at the point of consecutive playoff appearances (Tampa Bay) and therefore chance at the SC…contracts force your hand and disrupt 10 years of hard work and commitment, forcing you to repeat.
This begs the question, is it worth it?
5-10 years until you can even see a playoffs and then have a run or two just to be forced to trade it all away due to a salary cap???
I would argue strongly that if you went the polar opposite…ie. team of old vets with experience on expiring contracts with a solid goalie and recycled the crappy players every year…that you would have better odds at a SC, less business worries (development), as well more years potentially qualifying for playoffs therefore the cup
Honestly, I do NOT see TB’s cap situation as problematic, with or withut stamkos, because smart teams can minimize it’s impact to a team by not giving stupid contracts to unproven talent, especially over 3-4 million per year for 5 years (ie. players that have not proved their worth over 3 years minimum)
While I enjoy many of the things parity had brought us, you’ve touched on the one thing that drives me nuts with the rebuild cycles.
For Tampa, I believe they should use the strategies that their counterparts in MLB use where they don’t pay for these stars when the big payday contracts hit at 28-30 age seasons, but they trade them for a huge package of assets that they use to draft/develop and trade back to contention. I’m sure Ray’s fans were upset at trading Price away last year, however there is no doubt that the assets brought back are going to go along way in fielding a competitive team over the next 5 years .
As far as the Flyers are concerned, waiving Schenn or MacDonald would be fine as they (especially MacDonald) would in all likelihood not be claimed. The only advantage to a team claiming Schenn is this is the last year of his contract. Unfortunately for the Flyers, too many bad contracts (some with NTC’s) make it difficult for the youngsters to come in and gain experience. It pushes their improvement further back. Holmgren made some good moves early on, but he became a bit overzealous with his later signings.
Lyle, holding your breath waiting for a reply can be dangerous to your health. Now that the Sun papers have closed off all comments on their on-line articles you can expect to see more of that type of pointless, snarky remarks. Illegitimi non carborundum!
LOL, George.
Agreed the current salary cap structure is stifling. One suggestion is to do what the NBA does (or did) and that allows teams to sign their own homegrown layers to extended contracts without then counting against the cap. That way, you can sign your Toews, Kanes, Stamos’, etc without crippling your team. If they continue down this path and home town super stars keep flipping teams, it will be hard to maintain fan support. Like, it’s a shame that Iginla went from being Mr. Flame, to now a journeyman. That’s just my opinion.